15. Drive through a raging snowstorm on a lonely road at night to go skiing.

16. Know how to make a hot toddy.

17. Flirt with a lift op.

18. Hike for your turns.

Top 10 reasons why you should:10. You didn't buy a lift ticket with a fine-print warning about skiing at your own risk. 9. Nobody is cell phoning his broker in the lift line. 8. Everybody you ski with has nice big thighs. 7. You can eat brie and burgundy al fresco for the price of a greasy burger in a crowded cafeteria. 6. Parts of your lungs get air for the first time in years. 5. It isn't nearly as disfiguring when you run into a tree going uphill. 4. If you take a big spill, nobody yells insults at you from the chair above. 3. Fun tickets in your wallet don't keep changing into lift tickets on your jacket. 2. After a while, you learn to really love the pain. And the number-one reason why you should hike for your turns: 1.You get to ski flawless, untracked powder in solitude, at your own pace, without the rabid feeding frenzy of inbounds lift-served skiing.--John Rember

19. Go to France.Ride two trams to the Aiguille du Midi, a huge rocky pinnacle at 12,604 feet on the legendary Mont Blanc. Then spend the day skiing the crevasse-strewn Vallée Blanche back down into Chamonix. Eat a jambon sandwich along the way.

20. Paint your face red, white, and blue.Then go to a World Cup Downhill and scream your bloody head off.

21. Own a chainsaw.Cut your own line through the woods. Name it. Ski it.